Rebirth of Catholic hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti - It has been just over five years since the devastating 7.0 earthquake in Haiti destroyed the hospital in Haiti's capital. The Catholic Health Association helped fund the building of a new St. Francis de Sales Hospital, which was dedicated Jan. 15. Daughter of Charity Sr. Carol Keehan, CEO of Catholic Health Association, talks about the partnerships that made this piece of recovery possible.

GSR Today - Following the posting of my last GSR Today blog Getting on the learning curve about human trafficking awareness, one of our readers tipped me off to a story from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. It’s about a couple of Sisters of Mercy and truckers.

Three Stats and a Map - In case you missed it, earlier this week, a blizzard buried parts of the United States in deep, deep snow. Areas of Connecticut and Massachusetts saw as much as 30 inches, and New York City was preemptively shut down to keep people safe. But of course, as is almost always the case these days, the snow storm brought out the climate change skeptics.

"“To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness."

Leading Filipino Catholics welcome pronouncements Pope Francis made on contraception, family and marriage when he met with thousands of families in Manila Jan. 16. Francis reiterated at the Manila meeting the church's teaching on human life, marriage and family promulgated by Pope Paul VI in his 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae. At the same time, the pope "offered leeway" for particular cases where the ban on artificial contraception may not apply, noted Benedictine Sr. Mary John Mananzan.

GSR Today - Last week, I was bewildered when a male reporter asked Eugenie Bouchard, a tennis pro ranked seventh in the world, to comment on her outfit and to “give us a twirl” after her impressive and decisive victory in the second round of the Australian Open.

“ . . . communion with God is life and light, and enjoyment of the good things . . .”

From A Nun's Life podcasts - We respond to a listener who recently became a Christian and is grieving her mother's death, and she wonders if grief is a rejection of faith. Also: A Nun’s Life Ministry has appointed a new program director, Sr. Julie Myers, OSF, who starts Feb. 2

The word benevolent comes from the Latin, bene + velle, meaning to wish well. Benevolent gazing is a silent prayer done with the eyes. It means to look with love wherever you look – at morning rain washing your windows, at the hooded eyes of the terrorist and his captives on the news, at the sun rising like ribbons over your head and theirs.

In the 36-year war in Guatemala that ended with a peace treaty in 1996, some 200,000 persons died or disappeared, most of them unarmed indigenous Maya, at the hands of the army. In the midst of the mayhem, the Poor Clares answered a call from the bishop of the hard-hit province of Huehuetenango to come out to the hinterland and pray among the suffering. With five other American sisters, Sr. Mary Peter Rowland founded the monastery of Our Lady of Wisdom of the Virgin of Guadalupe, still the base for the contemplative order's pastoral ministry.